An Eloquent Lesson

After my ordination as a priest, Metropolitan George Khodr sent me to help one of the brethren priests in our Archdiocese. The first Divine Liturgy in which I participated with him was the Paschal Divine Liturgy. During the Liturgy, when the priest had read the Gospel, he turned to me and said, without preamble: “the homily is yours”! This, if I may speak of my lessons, was one of the eloquent lessons which I had received in my ministry. On that day, this first priest had taught me, with two words, two things. Firstly, the priest, whatever his role in the ministry, is supposed to be always ready to perform whatever the ministry requires. Then he had also taught me that, in the Church, no seniority should marginalize the others, regardless of their position in it, whether priests or deacons or laity. I have tried to pass this lesson on to some of the brethren priests with whom I had been blessed to serve. Useful knowledge must be passed on. May God have mercy on the teacher.